Problem with Geforce 9600GT HDMI audio

So i've connected my 9600GT via the SPDIF connectors onto my mobo(Asrock 970 Extreme4). I cant however set the sound to a HDMI device in Windows 7. Do i need special drivers for the audio to work? I am really lost here. Any help would be greatly apreciated.

Actually that thread you linked to verifies that in that gen of card, Nvidia didn't have an HDMI audio option. ATI did, but not Nvidia. Nvidia didn't come out with a true HDMI audio option until the 400 series.

Don't expect anything but 400 series cards and beyond to pass through both video and audio. The 200 series had a funky mini cable that was supposed to pass onboard audio to the HDMI port on the GPU via connecting it to the MB header and a small port on the GPU, but those never worked.

Even the current gen with HDMI A/V passthrough can be hit and miss depending what peripherals you're using. I just tried a 660 Ti that refused to show the Nvidia HD Audio device as ready for use. It always showed it as unplugged. I've seen others with similar stories.

I don't even feel Nvidia has better driver support lately, and am seriously considering going AMD.

Agreed. 9600GT series doesn't an onboard audio card, it needed an sperate soundcard to handle the processing which was buggy at the best of times. It was the main reason ATI was such a big hit for HTPC users as it was first to adopt proper HDMI with video and HD audio through a stadardised cable. Nvidia has caught up in this respect but you need a modern video card to exploit it.

Keroc14, I doubt you'll get it working. Might be less hassle to find a cheap $50 video card that can handle your audio requirement without fiddling.